Demonetisation

So this little kid had earned to dine out by agreeing to do her homework. And she was holding us on to our word. So we three, she, her mom and me promptly drove to a nearby restaurant. Since we only had around 280 Rs between us, the majority being the little kid’s pocket money, we asked the waiter if they accepted cards. He said of course.

We had a relaxing dinner; the portions were just right and the paneer chilli and tandoori chicken were delicious. We finished our food and waited for the bill. Bee kept the card in the bill book, and the guy says, ‘sorry ma’am cash only’!

‘We don’t have any money. We confirmed you accept cards before we ordered the food’

‘But card machines are not working now’

‘Well, we don’t have any money!!’

We remembered the serpentine queue outside the ATM on the way, and neither of us was going to wait there the entire night.

The table next seeing our ordeal called the waiter and asked ‘How much will our bill be?”

The waiter calculated and told them, and the guy began to count the money in his pocket. ‘OK, you can bring the order.’ And we all began to laugh…

The manager says he tried the card machines in all businesses nearby and nowhere it’s working.

‘So what do we do now?’ asks Bee.

‘Pay us in old bills. I can give you 50 Rs change in 1 rupee coins’ says the manager.

We did have a 50 in tens and paid the rest with old 500 Rs note. And that ended our feeling of ‘this seems to be not affecting us that much’.

I now have 2000Rs in hundreds I took out from my office ATM machine. The perks of being an early bird!

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